News

Surprises in East London qualifying

The East London Grand Prix Circuit delivered a couple of unexpected grids for the second round of the 2017 DEOD SuperGP Champions Trophy during qualifying this afternoon. After ending up in second place in every practice session, Clint Seller (MiWay Yamaha Racing R1) looked to have done enough to take pole position from Greg Gildenhuys (Autohaus Towing / Transport.co.za Kawasaki ZX10R) the red flag came out with just four minutes of the session left.

When the session resumed Seller chose not to go out again and Gildenhuys could not improve his time, but with just second to go Michael White (Consortium Shipping Yamaha R1) put in his fastest lap of the day to snatch pole position with a lap of 1’19.273″. Seller had to settle for second, 0.275″ back with Gildenhuys third, less than five-hundredths further back.

Super600 champion Adolf Boshoff (MiWay Yamaha R6) crashed during one of the morning practice sessions and injured his hand. While he did go out for qualifying, he could not push as hard as he wanted and qualified way down the field. There are doubts as to whether he will be able to ride tomorrow. At the front of the field Blaze Baker (Uncle Andy Racing Suzuki GSXR600) grabbed pole just over six-tenths quicker than Hayden Jonas (Samurai Racing Kawasaki ZX6) with Kewyn Snyman (Otto Racing Kawasaki ZX6) completing the front row of the grid.

Taric van der Merwe (Evolve Nutrition KTM390) will start at the head of the SuperJunior field ahead of Riccardo Otto (Otto Racing KTM390) and Aaron Heideman (Ginger Arrow Racing KTM390). Tyreece Robert (KTM390) will head the second row of the grid ahead of the Samurai Racing pair of Sam Lochoff and Jason Linaker.

Things get underway tomorrow at 08h00 when the first bikes go out for their warm-up session. Racing begins at 09h40.